DC at Night

Saturday, May 17, 2014

The Next Battle in DC Renaming: Harry Truman Union Station?

Each week in our Saturday Supplement, The Prices Do DC re-posts an entry of interest to both residents of the Washington area and visitors to DC that first appeared in another publication's website.

Two stipulations, right at the start: Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, is far from being among the most objectionable members of the world’s greatest (way too) deliberative body. And bipartisanship, though overrated, should not be automatically regarded as a bad thing.

That said, McCaskill, with the support and co-sponsorship of the Republican Roy Blunt, her fellow Missouri senator, has come up with a regrettable idea. They have introduced a bill to saddle Union Station, Washington’s magnificent temple to the greatness of rail travel and food-court cuisine, with a new name. They want to call it the Harry S. Truman Union Station.

Their reasoning—McCaskill’s, anyway—is that there isn’t anything else labelled “Harry S. Truman” in Washington. (And please: no pedantic quibbling over whether it should be “Harry S Truman.”) That’s not strictly true. There’s the Truman balcony, which overlooks the South Lawn from the White House. But McCaskill and Blunt have a point. Surely President Truman, that great Missourian, deserves to have his name on something other than a home-improvement project.

To continue reading this post which 1st appeared in The New Yorker, click here.

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Judy and Me

DC and Us: Perfect Together

In June 2011, I retired as an English teacher in an urban high school. One month earlier, my wife, Judy, had retired as the manager of a custom frame shop and art gallery.

We sold our South Jersey home of 33 years and moved to a 2-bedroom apartment in Crystal City, directly across the Potomac from Washington, D.C.

Within an extremely short time (I say minutes; Judy says days) we realized that we had made a perfect decision. We loved DC.

The Prices Do DC is an attempt to share that love of place and what we are doing on a regular basis with you.

Journal writing such as we are attempting here is about the process of recognizing, recalling, recording, and remembering. As such, I think our blog has 3 audiences. First, and foremost, there is Judy and I. Call it our electronic scrapbook. Next, there are our grandchildren Audrey and Owen. When we are no longer here (and may those days not come for a long, long time), we hope they can still visit these pages to find out what their grandparents were interested in, did, and liked during their DC years. Finally, if you are reading this, there is you.

Like all successful projects, The Prices Do DC calls for a clearly defined division of labor. Here is ours. We jointly plan. I make a list. We travel together. Judy is the financial overseer. I record our observations in a small notebook. I eat a lot. Judy eats a little. Once home, I create the posts. Judy edits them. I design the look. Judy has her final say and pushes the publish button.

And now the work falls to you. Please enjoy what we have created. And if you do (or if you don't) let us know. Attach a comment somewhere on the page here. Send us an email. Knock on our door. We're waiting to hear from you.

Peace --- Dave and Judy Price

How to Reach Us

There are 2 ways to contact us:1) attach a comment at the end of any post2) send us an email directly at dleeprice @comcast.netEither way will let you send us a shout-out.